Under-resourced markets from across the UK will benefit from £10,000 of government funding to help raise their profile, it was announced today.
The money, awarded to the National Association for British Market Authorities (Nabma), will help smaller markets that are involved with the Love Your Local Market (LYLM) campaign. One of the ways it will support markets is by funding Nabma staff members to form ‘town teams’ and visit markets that do not have resources to promote themselves.
The funding was announced at the World Union of Wholesale Markets (Wuwm) conference held in central London today, during a talk by Hilary Paxman from the department of communities and local government.
Although the LYLM campaign has primarily been taken up by retail and street markets, Paxman said retail and wholesale markets need to work together, and learn from each other on a global scale.
“Around 30 per cent of UK fresh produce goes through wholesale markets,” she said. “LYLM aims to raise the profile of markets and drive footfall. Entrepreneurs trading in a market place are the building blocks for economic success.”
LYLM was launched in the UK three years ago where it is free for markets to take part, and has since spread to other countries.
Promotion is done using low-cost flyers, merchandise and social media.
A spokesperson from Barcelona Markets, responsible for 40 markets in the Spanish city, said: “We have found it really easy to get traders to participate. We have used the same logo, images and social media as the UK, and some activities were also financed by traders.
